Blooded: (Extended Prologue Set at the Beginning)
by mrmushy
Summary: its a short story that i did for my english assignment... its my 1st one so be kind! hope you'll like it... this story is part of the extended prologue of the book 'blooded' that i was working on for my assignment


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EXTENDED PROLOGUE SET AT THE BEGINNING 

OF 'BLOODED'

On a cemetery on a dark, not-so-stormy-but-cloudy night in a small town called Sunnydale in southern California, a certain blonde girl was patrolling through in the woods and she had some kind of a sharp wooden instrument in her hand. Ah, a stake. And she was bored out of her mind.

Like, really bored. Even though that her friends were present with her to keep her company and making sure that she would not drown in a sea of boredom.

"So Buffy, we may have to leave early because, uhh, Cordelia and I want to do some excessive grop—unh!" Xander Harris winced as his stomach was met with a loud _smack_ from Cordelia, who was beside him. 

Cordelia Chase smiled sweetly though her eyes seemed to pierce deadly pins at her boyfriend, "What Xander was about to say that we have to do go home early to do, umm homework. Tons of homework that may take hours."

"Right yeah! Homework!" Xander nodded, following suit.

Buffy Summers rolled her eyes, the kind of thing she and her best friend Willow had done so many times before whenever Cordelia and Xander would always try to make lame excuses just so that they could go somewhere else do some serious—as Xander was really about to say—groping. Like right now, 'homework' seemed to be the new excuse of the day. 

"So, go then! There's nothing to do here for you guys. This night looks like to be a vampire-less activity at the moment, I'm afraid. You are dismissed from your duty, soldiers," Buffy said.

"Yes, General Summers!" Xander stood up straight and did this salute that people in the army always do. "We will depart as of, officially… right now!"

With as much eagerness as a boy in a candy store, Xander grabbed Cordelia's arm and they quickly left to who-knows-where.

It doesn't take an Einstein, or in Buffy's case, a Slayer to work out that homework really means that Cordy and Xander would want to make suck-face with each other again at some private place or something. 

Which frankly, in Buffy's opinion, was not an important issue at the moment.

She sighed. The only friend left with her right now was a redheaded girl by the name of Willow Rosenberg. As usual, Willow was blabbering away something about getting high marks in an extremely difficult science quiz. Good for her.

Buffy pulled an 'uh-huh' face and continued patrolling. She really wasn't in the mood for this. Although she was slightly distracted by her friend's company, she still had to be focused and concentrated on one single goal that she came for in the first place.

Slaying vampires, vampires and more vampires. 

Unfortunately that goal had yet to be achieved. No blood-sucking fiends anywhere in sight, and the stake in Buffy's hand was practically screaming to dust someone. Well, not yet. The night was still very early, it was barely 9pm and the Slayer and her companion would not be going home at any time soon. 

Just to put a bit of adrenaline rush in her, Buffy yelled out, "Hey fanged people! Where are you? What are you waiting for? Come on, I'm sinking in a quicksand of boredom here! Can't you give a Slayer some little fun, huh?"

Her voice seemed to resonated around the silent graveyard and no response came.

"Well, this is just great. They are torturing me with their lack of presence." 

Willow looked at her blonde friend quizzically. "Geez, Buffy. I thought this would be like, popping-the-champagne-cork time for you. No slicing and dicing for a change."

"The quicksand's up to my waist now, you know that?"

Willow just shrugged and held a _tsk-tsk_ gaze. She remembered that she had some Kit-Kat in her pocket and fumbled to get it out. She offered a piece to the Bored Slayer, hoping that the quicksand would not reach Buffy's head by now and make her die of boredom.

Buffy paused and shrugged, "Aw, what the hell. My stomach is in dire need of chocolate." She took the piece with her other free hand and began to munch on it. 

Funnily enough, it seems like that every time a Slayer drops her guard and relaxes a bit, then comes pouring in vampires. At the worst possible timing.

Because the blood-sucking guys had arrived seemingly out of nowhere and Buffy was still eating a Kit-Kat, for god's sake!

_Aiieeee_, came a scream from Willow as one butt-ugly dude with fangs came rushing at her. Luckily, Buffy went in front of the red-headed teenager and flipped the stake up to its right position. A second later, a howl emitted from the assailant when Buffy's stake sliced through the heart and he exploded in dust. 

Two others leaped at Buffy from the other side but she had already anticipated the move. So she displayed some impressive bone-crunching, head-cracking and neck-snapping techniques at her opponents before finally dusting both of them simultaneously, if you can believe it. 

That was all due to a result of manifestation of her slaying powers, to which she was thankful for. Sometimes anyway.

And all this while eating the Kit-Kat, too. Which she'd managed to finish as soon as possible, thank you very much.

Three or four more vampires appeared on the outskirts of the woods in where Buffy and Willow were.

"Well it's about time that the calvary arrived, guys," she muttered under her breath.

The Chosen One, along with Willow in tow who now had a cross and several stakes in her hands, then proceeded to kick some more vampire ass.

* * *

**I**n the meantime, Cordelia and Xander were debating on whether to go to Cordelia's car or to go to Xander's parents' house to make out—and his parents were out of town for a few weeks by the way. Note that the term debating is used loosely.

"Where do you think you're going, Xander?" Cordy threw up her hands in annoyance.

"Uh…. To my basement? To my…nice warm bed? Double?"

"Not to your house, you dolt. I don't have time to even step inside your pathetic cave that you refer to as your basement. My car is better and that's final. Hooboy, seconds are ticking by and the more the seconds go by, the less time I have of getting my tender tongue down your throat as soon as possible."

"But… but…" Xander decided then that it was wiser not to be under the wrath of Cordelia Chase, the bitchy—oops, sorry—somewhat bitchy girl of Sunnydale High. Besides, Cordelia was a good kisser and there was no way the hormonal teenager would pass up the opportunity.

So that was how they ended up in the backseat of Cordelia's car kissing and just basically swallowing each other's tonsils, with music blaring from the radio. 98 Degrees or N*Sync or something. Xander and Cordelia were in their own world.

* * *

****

It took ten minutes but the blonde teenager finally finished the job. She stood back, looked at her handiwork—well at the dust that had scattered around among the grass on the ground, and she was secretly satisfied. 

"Now I would want to have this ended this way. Buffy gets to live to see another day. Thank you, thank you don't send any cards or gifts, a round of applause would be necessary," Buffy turned to smile at her friend.

Willow was just sitting on the ground, nodding but she was panting heavily because she had been fending off vampires with the cross and some stakes and she did successfully for at least a few seconds. More than once, Buffy had put her life for Willow, to which she was grateful for.

Then a scream rose and rang through the cemetery. It sounded suspiciously like Cordelia's and seemed to come from outside the cemetery. Buffy's heightened senses thanks to her acquired gift of slaying picked up on the 'something's-very-wrong' vibe here. She thought, _Uh-oh. Thought they went home?_

Without saying anything, Willow and Buffy just exchanged acknowledging glances and they ran towards the source, fearful for what may lie before them once they reached there. It sure sounded like Cordelia and possibly, Xander were in trouble.

By the time they arrived at the entrance gate, Buffy realised that if Cordelia and Xander were still here, Cordelia's car would be also here. They headed for in the direction in where the car was parked.

Buffy's dread in her stomach tightened when she halted and stepped on what looked like broken glass. It was everywhere. But that was nothing compared to the scene that lied before Buffy's eyes.

Glass aside, the car looked like it had been in an earthquake. Scratches and gnashes appeared everywhere on the outside and some cracked holes had formed on both sides and front and back of the car. Xander and Cordelia were nowhere in sight. Now the knot in her stomach tightened even further so hard that she felt like it was going to pop.

Buffy felt slightly dizzy. It was obvious that they were kidnapped. _By whom?_ She wondered. 

As much as she would barely have to tolerate Cordelia and her snobbish attitude, she was not what you call a friend but not necessary a nemesis either. Buffy still felt it was her obligation and responsibility to look after her friends and keep them out of danger.

Sigh. That was one of the downsides of being the Chosen One.

_Guess I have to postpone let's-ready-to-party time for later_, thought Buffy wistfully. _And ooh, I was hoping to have big smoochies with Angel afterwards…_

She stopped when Willow's voice calling her name cut through her distracted mind.

"Hey Buffy. You need to…uhh, take a look at this," Willow pointed to a crumpled piece of paper stuck under the windshield wiper. 

Buffy frowned and retrieved the note from under the wiper. It read:

Welcome to the Majestic Theatre.

You are invited to witness the Shakespearean play of King Lear!

And the deaths of your two friends, Slayer.

Be there at 10pm or else.

Your regards, 

__

Lear.

"Who's Lear?" Willow asked.

"I have no idea," Buffy admitted. "Either this guy is a vampire or he is a sad excuse for a Shakespearean worshipper."

"Well, we can't exactly go to the Majestic Theatre now. We have to find Giles and get more help."

Buffy was about to protest, she wanted to go to the Theatre straight away and haul this Lear guy's ass so far back to England, where he'd better be suited over there among the Shakespearean minutiae. Besides, she was worried for Xander and Cordelia's safety. They could… they could be dead by now. She did not want to think about it. But then again, she didn't know who Lear was, he could be potentially dangerous—she at first thought it was some vampires who attacked her friends but she was unsure. After all, vampires tend to go for the bite-first-ask-questions-later method. Which, unfortunately that part about asking questions never come up. So Lear might be some kind of demon with an odd taste in Shakespeare. Buffy did not know many demons that were like that. 

Anyway, Lear had told them to be there at 10pm, so this meant that Xander and Cordelia might still be alive… Buffy held on to that hope. Also, they would need forces in the form of a tweed-clad Englishman and a vampire with a soul.

Thinking of Angel made her smile. It would give her the excuse to see the big brooding guy again soon. 

So Buffy, stuffing the note in her pocket, told Willow to go fetch Angel while Buffy would go to see Giles who was probably still in the library at Sunnydale High. Knowing him, he would be doing something predictable like cataloging books or researching or something. How interesting.

They said their goodbyes and went off in different directions.

* * *

**U**nfortunately for Buffy, she was wrong. Some kind of classic music drifted along and invaded her ears even before she opened the double doors that led to the library. Either Giles was listening to music or she needed to check her medication.

It was not that there was something wrong with listening to music. The problem was here was _Giles_ sitting back on the chair in his office, his eyes closed and bobbing his head up. It was way, way wrong. She was not used to this.

Buffy was not surprised when she stepped in the office and gave Giles such a scare that he toppled over backwards on the chair and papers flew in all directions. And let out a girlish scream, Buffy noted.

"Okay, Giles. Who are you and what have you done with him, Dr. Jekyll?" 

Giles mourned for what was left of his dignity as he stood up, brushing dust off his pants. "Hi Buffy. Ummm." He switched the radio off. "That was one of my new hobbies that I particularly enjoy in my spare time. One must needs to have a little leisure time to himself for all the hard work that he has done, you must understand." 

"By listening to music, to which what you call a bad influence on people in today's society? Same goes for television and--" Buffy pointed to a group of computers that rested on the desks in the centre of the room, "the net as well." 

"Buffy," Giles said, exasperated. Giles, a Watcher with a strong duty and responsibility to look after and train her to be a better Slayer and fights against the forces of darkness or whatever has been spewed out of a place called Hellmouth. 

"I'll have you know that I'm not at all what appears to be an stereotyped image of a…stiffed school librarian, thank you very much. And I have started to enjoy listening to classic music. It is not so bad, I have to concede--"

Buffy interrupted, "Giles. Stick with the stereotype. You're scaring me."

Before Giles was about to interject, the Slayer continued. "Anyway. Big trouble here. Xander and Cordy have been captured by some Lear dude. Here's the note."

Giles did the pushing-up-his-glasses thing and squinted at the note. "Oh, goodness…"

This prompted a 'what' look from Buffy.

"Oh." The Watcher looked up. "The name Lear sounds familiar. Our friend is definitely a vampire. But a different kind. We may have to do a bit of research here, I'm afraid."

Buffy groaned in dismay. "I don't have time for that, research guy. I want to go to the Majestic Theatre. Now." 

Her tone had a slight whine to it, which was understandable since she wanted to do some serious damage to Lear and rescue her friends from the perilous danger.

"Look, the more research and knowledge acquired of him, the better prepared in a fight we would be against Lear. I will be of haste, okay?"

Giles did not hesitate to hear Buffy's forthcoming response and quickly went away to the bookshelves to launch into research mode.

About 20 minutes and a hundred books later, the weary librarian said, "Ah-ha!"

Buffy, who had been practicing on a boxing bag to pass time, sauntered over and became prepared for whatever information that she might have to absorb in her mind, courtesy of Giles.

"It seems that at somewhere around the turn of the 20th century, a King Lear play had been performed at a Broadway Theatre in New York. This Lear person's real name was actually Edward Bogart Ludwigsburg. His vocation was of a stage props assistant but he longed to be on stage and wanted to audition for the lead role of King Lear. Obviously he was somewhat an avid fan of the Shakespearean drama because he recited Lear's lines night after night, in the hopes that he would somehow recover Lear's role. However, due to the issue of his obesity he was unable to do so."

"He vowed revenge and for this reason allowed himself to become a vampire of his own free will. On the night the play opened to the public audience of approximately 700 people, Edward had managed to gather an army and attacked the unsuspecting audience. He drained the blood of Brain Hardswick who had been portraying King Lear's role, and assumed his place."

"Edward became notoriously known as Lear, and chaos and slaughter resulted. While the hungry demons devoured the terrified audience, Lear finally realised his dream; he was now on stage, stealing the spotlight, as one would say, and acted out King Lear's part throughout the whole play. All the while 700 people died under the clutches of Lear."

"Apparently Lear has since then maintained a reputation for crashing and invading every Shakespearean play especially King Lear for at least a century."

Giles glanced up from the book and noted Buffy's scrunched up expression.

"Gee, sounds like he has never heard of 'I think therefore I am' quote," Buffy said dryly. "Well then, if Lear's big on butchering people so why did he capture Xander and Cordelia?"

Giles looked at Buffy warily. "You're the Slayer of course. Rather unlike many vampires we encountered in the past, Lear seemed to adopt a new strategy of luring you into his trap."

"Huh, great. I'm famous now. He actually came all the way from New York just to sign my autograph? I'm flattered." 

Just then, the doors opened and Willow and a very handsome guy barged in. 

Buffy stood up from where she was sitting and smiled, "Hey Angel." She came over and planted a quick kiss on her boyfriend's lips.

"Nice to see you again, Buff," Angel said quietly.

After the usual hellos and blah-blah were exchanged, Giles said, "We were getting ready to depart. I'll fill you in but we need weapons first."

So they left Sunnydale High in the direction of Majestic Theatre, with an assortment of weapons in hand of course.

* * *

****

Minutes later, the Scooby Gang were now at the entrance of the Majestic Theatre. It was kind of old and looked abandoned, and the sign which read 'The Majestic Theatre' hung loosely from at the top of the gates. 

They split up in two upon entering the Theatre, with Giles and Buffy going in the front door while Angel and Willow went around the back.

Buffy prepared herself into a stance, stake in hand and silently went inside, motioning for the Watcher to follow.

The Slayer was unsure what to expect but she knew there would be plenty of fighting going on and she made sure that she and her friends would have to come out unscathed and alive, no matter what. 

****

TO BE CONTINUED….


End file.
